Bay Area Houston

Well that didn’t take long. So much for civility.

CCISD Trustee Scott Bowen is taking heat for his latest unethical stunt. His mailer claims his opponent “Promised” a $300 million bond. She didn’t. Not once. There were three forums where bonds were discussed and she never promised a bond, for very good reasons. A board member cannot promise a bond. Only voters can approve a bond. A board member can vote to put a bond on the ballot just like Scott Bowen did in 2023 but they can’t promise squat. Scott knows this but sent out his lying mailer anyway. Scott’s opponent, Rebecca Lilley quickly responded with the following video. It’s good.

Breaks Campaign Pledge
Every candidate for CCISD Trustee, including Bowen, signed a Code of Fair Campaign Practices pledging not to be a dick when campaigning. Here is what Bowen agreed to. His form can be found here.

Violation of Texas Ethics Laws
Bowen’s mailer is paid for by Scott Bowen for CCISD Trustee. I could not find the campaign finance reports for this PAC. According to his recent campaign finance report he has spent over $18,000 on his campaign, most coming from his own pocket. Who is funding “Scott Bowen for CCISD Trustee”? Who funded this mailer?

Early voting starts today.

This is a pretty serious question.

Joe Machol is a Seabrook City Council Member. He should know the laws governing elections, but he is either ignorant or deliberately thumbing his nose at the Texas Ethics Commission. Machol has failed to appoint a Treasurer in a timely manner. The law is clear, you must have a Treasurer appointed before you raise or spend money. Machol already have signs and buttons made and yet no appointment of Treasurer was filed. He has since filed one appointing himself.

He has failed to file a campaign finance report. Even if you have no donations (including from yourself) or expenditures you are required to file a report. This should concern everyone in the CCISD district. Who is paying for Machol’s campaign? I would not be surprised if Trustee Scott Bowen promised funding to him from a third party like the Harris County Republic Party or the State party. This way Machol can plead ignorant when mailers are received by voters from the party. I wouldn’t be surprised if their mailer has both Bowen and Machol running as a coalition.

I have asked Mr. Machol about this. I am holding my breath for an answer.

BTW. Thanks to the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce for this forum and for asking some very important questions. You can watch the entire forum here.

If Trustee Scott Bowen wasn’t such an awkward, right wing, extremist he might actually be a productive board member. But, alas, he isn’t. There are many reasons to send him to his next campaign for State Representative. I’ve listed them here.

You can watch the entire forum here. I took one for the team and watched it yesterday and highlighted the low points of candidate Machol. It wasn’t pretty. Read it here. He has no business running for any office since he cannot follow the laws of the state in filing campaign finance reports or even in printing his signs for the office. Besides that he is not educated in education. Go read it here.

I like the question about accepting funds from out of district and support from out of district PACs. Machol claimed he reported all donations, which is not true since he didn’t file a campaign finance report. Bowen claims he reported everything, but failed to mention his $2500 in out of district donations, including $1000 from a failed republican candidate for State Representative in Corsicana Texas. Yes, Bowen has accepted and encouraged donations to his recruited candidates from out of district PACs. He also accepted support from his political party.

Trustee Cejka and Lilley clearly understands the issues affecting our district. Cejka has proved to be a valuable addition to the Board over the last 3 years. She is engaged in the community and in schools. Lilley also understands the issues and would be a great addition to the Board. Her strong opposition to vouchers separates her from Bowen who sponsored a resolution for the Texas Republic Party in support of vouchers. This was NOT a unanimous vote. Even republicans do not favor the voucher system. Both Cejka and Lilley have in depth knowledge of the issues affecting the district. After Machol claimed the district needed to do more with NASA Cejka highlighted Systems Go, a project she has volunteered for many years. Lilley understands the challenges facing the district including lower attendance due to the demographics of the district.

Over the last two forums I have noticed that Bowen takes credit for the actions of the Board as if no one else but Bowen challenged the group thinking of the board. That is just total bullshit. Bowen brought chaos to the board. Unlike the others who constantly looked for improvements Bowen did what republicans do, he lied. He claimed everything was broken and only he could fix it. He takes credit for the achievements of the Board. He is dishonest in what he had done to the Board.

BTW. I have donated a small amount to both Cejka and Lilley. Both are very well qualified for the job while Machol is a UFO (Unqualified For Office) and Scot Bowen is just a dick and needs to go.

As someone who was in attendance said “If you weren’t able to watch the forum live, please watch the replay. It was great, sad, hilarious and stupid at the same time.”

Sad, hilarious and stupid
I watched the replay and have to agree. This was the first time Joe Machol faced the public and he didn’t disappoint. He was clearly out of his league and should not be running for the School Board. He mentioned, a number of times, he was an NFL referee. He struggled with simple questions like “What is the difference between charter and private schools?”. (23:07) At 38:30 he believes that bringing prayer back to school would stop school shootings. (He should google Christian school shootings to see how well that works) Machol only repeated his 3Rs once instead fumbling through most of the questions with either deflections or answers with little or no depth. He claimed school taxes were going up, but they actually have been significantly cut. (29:20)

Machol claims he will report all donations from outside resources but failed to mention he did not file a campaign finance report and just recently filed an appointment of treasurer. He also had his signs available, signs that do not have the required notices and does not indicate what he is running for. Machol wanted the teachers to be paid more but didn’t want to raise taxes. He wanted CCISD to embrace NASA not knowing that CCISD already does that. (For those that don’t know Systems Go is a high school course where students design, build and launch rockets.)

Machol should be thrown out of this game. Unfortunately I believe he has been promised by Trustee Bowen that he will have support from the Harris County Republic Party. I expect a mailer to his district paid for by the party and supporting Bowen and Machol. He will then claim ignorance.

More on the forum tomorrow.

Finally! Joe Machol, candidate for CCISD Trustee, is expected to attend the CCISD Forum held by the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce tomorrow at 5:30. Hopefully the moderator will ask some hard hitting questions that would separate the candidates. This is also an opportunity for the community to ask Joe Machol “Why are you running?”. It’s a valid question and one that he has refused to answer. He is running against a very well qualified Trustee, Jessica Cejka.

Machol is a former football referee and should be flagged for an illegal substitution. He is not qualified to run for this office. Machol has made a fool of himself when he responded to a detailed questionnaire repeatedly emphasizing “Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic” as if that is no longer taught in schools. His responses, which can be viewed below, are not only embarrassing they should be disqualifying. He has refused to file an Appointment of Treasurer until faced with an Ethics Complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission and he has refused to file a campaign finance report, again against the rules of the Commission.

The one that recruited Macho, Trustee Scott Bowen, should be asked about his support of vouchers (or as he calls it “Savings Accounts”) and how he sponsored a resolution within the Republic Party supporting vouchers. (It was NOT a unanimous vote!) He should be asked about his support in the past of white supremacists organizations and his courting of out of district money from his Billionaire Buddies.

The forum should be available online at https://clearlakearea.com/

Disturbing.
Joe Machol has not filed a campaign finance report. He has not filed an appointment of treasurer yet he is still on the ballot. These are pretty serious ethics violations. If a complaint is filed, and one will be, the fines are usually severe. This makes me wonder what Scott Bowen promised him. I bet we will see a campaign flyer for both Machol and Bowen running as the “Conservative” slate paid for by Bowen’s Billionaire Buddies. By the way, breaking the law is not a conservative value. (unless you are Trump)

Interesting.
Before Bowen ran for CCISD and the push by the Elon Musk Billionaires of Texas candidates would raise a few thousand dollars, put up some signs, shake some hands, and watch the polls. The candidates had extensive backgrounds in education. The races were boring. The results were always best for the district because all the candidates were best for the district. After Bowen outside money flooded the district supporting unqualified candidates such as Christine Parizo, Misty Dawson, Pete Lauzon, and now Joe Machol.

Trustee Cjeka raised $1720, spent $3737, and has a personal loan of $2500. This is what I would have expected pre-bowen. Candidate Rebeccas Lilley raised $4345 and spent $3493. Again what I would have expected pre-bowen.

Expected.
Just an FYI. I donated a small amount to Cjeka and Lilley and if you have read my blog I believe Bowen is a threat to CCISD. You can read about that here.

Bowen raised $4433, spent and incredible amount of $18,500, and like his last run, he has a $15,000 personal loan. This isn’t the first time Bowen has padded his account with a personal loan. He has loaned his campaign $20,000 in the past then just took the loan off his report. His expenditures include $9400 to the Yates Company. That company is used by many far right extremists such as Steve Hoetze who was indicted on multiple felony counts. $2000 went to a group out of Washington DC for voter information. $4900 went to the Republican “store” for signs. As I said this was expected.

CCISD has all the campaign finance reports posted here.

The billionaire, Elon Musk, got his ass kicked last night in Wisconsin.

Elon Musk spent $28 million supporting a candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. It should have been a razor thin victory instead Musk got his ass handed to him by over 10 points. Turn out for this race was out the roof. The night prior to the election Musk handed out $1 Million prizes for those who had signed a petition. He paraded on stage wearing a cheesehead hat and jumping around on the stage like a 2 year old.

Last week a large number of protesters targeted a Tesla dealership. One of the issues discussed was the out of control money being spent by billionaires to win races including school districts. CCISD is one of those that has been targeted by Texas’ own Elon Musks, Timothy Dunn and Farris Wilks. In the last election their PAC, Defend Texas Liberty, solely funded a CCISD candidate Peter Lauzon. He lost. They tried to fund another candidate during the same election. She returned the donation.

These billionaires gave $2000 to Trustee Scott Bowen. He gladly accepted it. Bowen is now up for reelection and will probably be supported by his political party, again, as well as the Elon Musks of Texas. BTW Defend Texas Liberty was disbanded after the leadership was caught meeting with a known white supremacist, Nick Fuentes. (Look him up)

Campaign finance reports for the CCISD elections are due tomorrow. Prior to Scott Bowen running for office, candidates would raise a few thousand dollars, make some signs, and shake some hands. Now PACs like Defend Texas Liberty have attempted to “take over” school districts spending outrageous amounts of money. In Keller ISD candidates received $50,000 each from a PAC. (They won) In Friendswood a candidate received $50,000 from 2 donors. (He lost!)

Hopefully Musk will put on a cow patty hat and campaign for Scott Bowen.